FMLA

[Guest edunn7]

FMLA-We are a national organization, headquartered in NYC, An employee, work location DC, home address, VA, is currently on FMLA, maternity disability. She will be taking the full 12 weeks. Return date from FLMA is 10/6/03. The field office manager called; she would like to take an additional unpaid leave from 10/6/03 to 12/31/03. The field office has let me know that they would hold the position open for her. My question, would it be considered discriminatory (unless we let everyone do it) that we let an employee have an unpaid leave after her FMLA ends, knowing that the position would be kept open. Would a precedent be sent whereby we would have to keep all positions open past the FMLA return date if we granted this employees request (with the approval of the field office). Thanks

[Sandra Pearce]

Of course you would be setting a precedent and should treat anyone in a similar situation the same. Another thing to consider would be whether any insured benefits you offer employee will consider someone on leave for this period of time, and not mandated by FMLA, as an active employee. It is possible that some benefits would be "lost" during the leave period. Examples might be life insurance and long term disability.

[Guest edunn7]

Sandra,

Thanks your for your promt response, I am a newbee here, what a great board. YouR answer has also iilustrated the need for us to update our personnel policy guide ASAP.

Thanks again.

Ed

[Guest jfp]

Why would it be a problem, necessarily, to grant an extra leave and hold the job open for this person, but not other similarly-situated persons? What law says that? As long as there is no illegal discrimination on the basis of race, sex, etc., what's the legal problem here?

We may not perceive it as "fair," but that's another matter. However, I would be reluctant to tell a client that it cannot or should not make an exception and hold open a job for a valued employee unless I was sure I was right about that.

[KIP KRAUS]

Jfp:

I can see a major problem if the employer doesn’t have a written leave policy above and beyond the mandated FMLA. The DOL or Fair Labor Standards act may apply as well as ADEA and ADA. Besides, in a large national corporation who’s going to monitor this type of situation to ensure that none of the fair employment practices are violated absent a written policy applied equitably? Why put yourself in the position of having to justify your position in court to find out how legal it is?